A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Did the Church "Create" the Scriptures?

Or, more precisely, in what sense can we say the church “created” the canon of Scripture (since “the church” obviously preceded the NT)? And what does this mean for the Protestant principle of sola scriptura? The age-old debate is revisited at Here We Stand and Pontifications. See here, here, and here.

I think all parties agree that the church does not confer but rather recognizes the authority of the canonical books. What seems to be at issue is on what basis the church(es) selected the books it (they) did. That is, does the authority of the books of the NT reside in their apostolic content, their (alleged) apostolic authorship, or both?

One response to “Did the Church "Create" the Scriptures?”

  1. Joshie

    This is an issue I have been interested in a while. One thing that has bothered me for a while is the fact that the sola scriptura principle does not appear in scripture itself, which it should if it is to be authoritative according to its own terms.

    I think the RC approach to them is more helpful. The scriptures are a part of the inspired tradition, not something above it. Now, as the earliest part of the tradition, they are the most authoritative, but they are the beginning of the conversation, not the final word. The bible was created in history and is a part of the ongoing work of the Spirit in the church. Even which scriptures made it into the Old Testament and their relative authority was decided by the church.

    I like to think of the Bible as the Declaration of Indepence or the Federalist Papers to the Constitution of the Creeds and great ecumenical councils. Maybe this makes me less than fully protestant, but if it does so be it.

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